🥇Full home automation in a new building

Three years ago, he began to turn his old dream into reality - the maximum home automation of an apartment bought in a new building from scratch. At the same time, the "finishing from the developer" had to be sacrificed to the smart home and completely redo it, and all electrics not related to automation came from a well-known Chinese site. A soldering iron was not required, but it took a long time to find knowledgeable craftsmen, electricians and carpenters.

Apartment control panel in February 2020 (Home Assistant)

In this article I will talk about the choice of smart home technologies used in the apartment, as well as give my wiring diagrams, photos of everything that was done, the resulting electrical panels and configurations of all devices, I will give a link to the github.

Construction of our house in progress - November 2016

What did I want in 2017?

Since I became the owner of an apartment at the stage of excavation in 2015, I had time left before the apartment was handed over in 2018 to determine exactly what automation technology I was going to use in my apartment and, most importantly, what I was going to manage.

I wanted to choose the best option and have the following features:

For electrical:

Manage lighting levels in all rooms;
Manage lighting depending on the time of year and day;
Simulate the presence of the owners (in their absence);
Control curtains and blinds with electric drive;

The resulting Home Assistant-based apartment control panel in 2020 is a mobile version of light control

For energy accounting:

Organize the collection of readings from all metering devices in a single control panel;

On the system of audio and video equipment. Multiroom:

Have a single centralized bank of audio-video information;
Automatically mute music when a phone call, doorbell;
Automatically display informational status messages on the screens;
Manage the display of the surveillance camera in the hallway on the TV in the bedroom;
Manage all home theater devices;

For computer systems:

Manage all systems from anywhere in the world;
Manage all systems from any computer in the house;
Get a picture from any surveillance camera from anywhere in the world;
Read system messages from any touch panel in the apartment;
Tracking the presence of specific people, their time of arrival / departure;

The resulting Home Assistant-based apartment control panel in 2020 is a mobile version of the robot vacuum cleaner control

For video surveillance system:

Introducing a signal from surveillance cameras into a multiroom system;

Screenshot of Home Assistant in 2020 - camera and sensors on the doors

On the ventilation and air conditioning system. Heating system:

Control temperature or humidity in all rooms;
Control ventilation depending on temperature and humidity;

Screenshot of the apartment control panel in 2020 (Home Assistant)

According to the weather control system:

Collection of meteorological information inside and outside the house (temperature, humidity, wind, atmospheric pressure);
Reflect the necessary information on visualization devices;

According to the system of cold and hot water supply:

Information about leaks and their localization;

The list turned out to be impressive, but I wanted to have every item.

By wire or by air?

Theoretically, in 2017 there were no problems with the choice of smart home technology. Here is a report from one of the European manufacturers:

Picture from the 2017 report - technologies used in smart homes

I want to note that by 2017 I had a five-year experience of being passionate about smart homes, starting with a specialized Z-Wave standard that does not require additional wires and repairs, and ending with an affordable MegaD-328 wired actuator that cannot be used without wall chasing. Just between these poles, I had additional experience with inexpensive variations of Chinese microcontrollers ESP8266 with Wi-Fi interface in various factory relays and sensors. But since it was possible to do everything from scratch in the apartment, then first of all I considered the wired option and these were the following interfaces and products:

KNX
loxone
wire board
PLC ARIES
MegaD 2561

For a very long time, I have been looking at a decentralized KNX bus that is not tied to a specific vendor. I even visited several installers in Perm and Moscow, but the announced amounts for equipment alone (~700k rubles) were dumbfounding. As a result, KNX had to be abandoned.

Wiren Board and Loxone also dropped for financial reasons.

PLC ARIES seemed to me too clumsy for the tasks voiced - after all, this is industrial automation.

So there was only one option left - the MegaD 2561 controller from Samara. In addition, I already had experience with him.

Trying to attract a developer to my venture

I made an attempt to change the electrical wiring of the apartment by the developer, for which I made a request:

Прошу сообщить о возможности изменить прокладку осветительных сетей с обычной схемы освещения на прокладку для последующего использования в системе проводной домашней автоматизации по объекту долевого строительства 1-комнатная квартира № XXX, расположенная во XXX подъезде на XXX этаже дома по адресу г. Пермь, Свердловский район, квартал 179, ул. Революции, 48а, расчетной площадью 41,70 кв.м.

Прокладка сети электроосвещения для последующего использования в системе проводной домашней автоматизации подразумевает, что от каждого светильника, выключателя, розетки или потребителя электроэнергии идет отдельный электрический кабель до квартирного электрического щитка, где он маркируется во избежание путаницы и коммутируется необходимым образом. Электрический щиток при этом необходим размером не менее 48 модулей.
Negative response was sent quickly.

Builder's response

Drawing up working projects

After the developer refused to cooperate in 2017, I compiled:

furniture placement project;
wiring projects for all cables;
projects of power shields;
wiring diagrams for switchboard actuators.

The project of the arrangement of furniture in an apartment of 41 sq. m (drawn in Sweet Home 3D)

It all started with a project for arranging furniture and household appliances, and then a project for pulling all cables was developed (below are two of the 8 developed sheets).

Scheme of laying power cables VVG 3x2,5; VVG 3x1,5; VVG 5x1,5

UTP 5e twisted pair wiring diagram

Then I began to delve into the topic and draw projects of power shields, below is an example of one of the 5 developed sheets.

One of three electrical panels

After that, automation design began: what and where to connect, to which port - there were too many cables. Automation with MegaD-2561. Below are two of the eight sheets of the "wiring" project.

Wiring of the power section on the actuator MegaD-2561

Almost all power lines are stretched from the consumer directly to the shield - this greatly increased the length of the cable routes, but I wanted to make the maximum preparation for automation.

Wiring for connecting sensors on the MegaD-2561 device

Repair and finishing works

After drawing up all the projects and the final delivery of the house by the developer, work began on dismantling the existing "repair" and the developer's electrical networks.

Dismantling the repair in the bedroom

After dismantling, construction work began, including the pulling of cables, coupled with the chasing of the walls.

Pulling new cables

During the repair, it was necessary to make changes to the wiring projects quite often, adjusting everything in place.

Photo with rough cabling

The most important thing for home automation is to bring all the cables together in a single and convenient place. As this place, I chose a niche made by builders - a closet for things - located in the hallway, next to the front door.

Three electrical cabinets - one place to bring all cables together

Software setup difficulties

After the repair was completed at the beginning of 2018, the most interesting thing began - setting up all systems and selecting control programs for a smart home.

And with all this there were some difficulties. Because if the builders did the whole repair in about 4 months, working at the construction site every day, then I spent only a few hours on it, and then not every day. So it took me another three months to finalize the setup.

At the very beginning, the process was slowed down by the fact that I could not remotely configure something: the telecom operator connected apartments via GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) and there was a connection endpoint in the form of a Huawei router, but I wanted MikroTik to be installed, because , in my opinion, it is one of the best in terms of price-quality ratio to date. As a result, the dream came true, but it's still a couple of weeks to the time spent on setup.

Setting up Huawei HG8245H in 2018 to work in tandem with MikroTik

I had a separately organized switching cabinet inside the apartment under the ceiling for the equipment of communication providers - it was included in the repair beforehand (you can see it in the diagram above), not only a twisted pair cable, but also an optical cable was stretched to it at the repair stage.

Home automation on openHAB and Home Assistant

Initially, I began to do all home automation on openHAB. And it was not a quick start, although I already had experience with openHAB. What is this home automation system?

openHAB (stands for open Home Automation Bus) dates back to 2010 when it was started by Kai Kreuzer in Germany as an open building automation platform. In 2010, there were practically no such solutions, and openHAB largely became the prototype of the variety of smart home systems that we are seeing now. His idea is simple: to combine solutions from different manufacturers on one open software platform, regardless of the protocol and technical features. This allows you to get away from a specific manufacturer and use all products with a single management interface.

Visual Studio Code. openHAB VS Code Extension

The MegaD-2561 wired controller has become the most important home automation executive device in the apartment - it is he who turns the light on and off, receives readings from all sensors and meters.

It has a fairly low price compared to analogues ~ 3 rubles. (at the end of 500) for the controller plus two additional modules are required for operation, for example:

The first module: for 7 standard inputs, 7 relay outputs 0-220V (7*2300W/10A): ~3 rubles (at the end of 000);
Second module: 14 universal hardware-configurable inputs + 1 relay output with the ability to connect both buttons and digital sensors I2C, 1-wire, etc.: ~3 rubles (at the end of 000);

I have two sets installed in my apartment, that is, these are two controllers and four additional modules.

Looking at its relatively low price, you might think that this is an ideal device for home automation, but this is not entirely true. This is primarily a Geek DIY device, and if you don't have enough time and patience for the initial setup and physical connection, then this is NOT for you. Also MegaD-2561 will not work out of the box like Xiaomi Mi Home.

And if not you, but a special organization will deal with automation in your apartment or house, then you are unlikely to be offered this device, because it is too low-margin for a professional installer.

But I had the desire and time to figure everything out on my own and at the same time get the “adult” functionality (which this device can provide with proper configuration), because according to KNX, which I was initially looking at, I was charged only for equipment such a price, which I ended up paying for all repairs, furniture, and all electrical work, including equipment and sensors for automation. And for KNX, it was only the price of equipment without installation and configuration.

My apartment configuration in openHAB 2.2 on GitHub:
https://github.com/empenoso/openHAB_one-room-apartment/

At first everything worked in the apartment, but after a year I faced insurmountable difficulties with openHAB in the simplest things that I had done many times in the past. Therefore, in 2019, I decided to switch to Home Assistant.

But this is not the end of the story, but only the first part of the article. The second part of the article will be prepared within two weeks.

UPD. Extension already published.

Сonclusion

In the first part of the article, I talk about what I dreamed about in 2016 and what I got by the middle of 2018. I also talk about my failed attempt to get a developer involved in home automation and what led me to write all my automation projects myself.

In the article I give photos from the construction site with repair and finishing work. I also complain about software difficulties in setting up and talk about the openHAB home automation system.

In the second part, I will give all the finishing photos of the apartment and all the resulting electrical panels, as well as talk about the difficulties that I encountered in another home automation system - Home Assistant.

Author: Mikhail Shardin.

Illustrations: Mikhail Shardin.
Illustrations related to Home Assistant: Alexey Krainev xMrVizzy.

February 5 - 25, 2020

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Do you live in an apartment/house with home automation?

2,0%Full automation34
20,9%Partial automation348
58,3%No automation (but wanted)969
2,3%I am against any automation!38
0,8%Something else (write in the comments)14
15,6%No automation (and didn't want to)259

1662 users voted. 135 users abstained.

Source: habr.com

Full home automation in a new building